The Toronto District School Board is planning to stock its alternative and high schools with overdose-reversing naloxone kits.
TDSB spokesman Ryan Bird said the decision was not prompted by a specific incident, but rather a result of the school board working with Toronto Public Health to combat the ongoing opioid crisis.
“If for some reason it’s needed, at least we have it on hand in the office at the school,” he told The Morning Show on 640 Toronto Thursday.
School trustees voted to receive a report on the plan at a meeting on Wednesday.
Bird said before the drug is distributed, two to three staff members per school will be trained on how to use it. The schools will stock the easier-to-administer nasal spray version.
“Typically it’s going to be the people inside the schools that may already have their first aid training and that kind of thing,” Bird said.
Bird anticipates the training to complete by the end of April.
LISTEN: Ryan Bird joins The Morning Show on 640 Toronto
Naloxone, which is effective within minutes, targets opioid receptors in the brain to reverse an overdose. It works on drugs such as fentanyl, oxycodone and heroin.
The TDSB is one of several large organizations either considering or implementing a plan to make the kits available in the event of an emergency.
In December, the provincial government announced funding for all first responders, including police and firefighters, to obtain the kits if they choose to do so.
Between August and the end of January, Toronto paramedics responded to over 1,400 suspected overdose calls, 106 of which were fatal.